Of jewelry thieves and light sabers
by MegalegU
Summary: One-shot. Peter discovers...a different side of Neal.


A/N: I thought, _why not_?

* * *

><p>Peter stumbles across an odd thing one sunny, New York City day. He's chasing down an armed man who has just filled a backpack with jewelry from a store not far from the White Collar Division, completely by happenstance, as Peter had had no intentions of chasing anyone down today; he's wearing loafers and they certainly aren't coated in Nike rubber. The reason he's sprinted down the usually-crowded street, having seen the suspicious man bursting out the fancy store, is because he was fully intending to spend his glorious fifteen-minute break from briefs to indulge in some artery-clogging street food but then there was the man and off he went.<p>

So he's booking down the street, shouting at the man, suit jacket flapping, completely on his own and feeling absolutely foolish. If he had any backup of some kind, this would bring the embarrassment levels down, but Neal's day off is today, so he's without former-conman and Olympic track running skills. He should just whip out his phone and demand some form of backpack but, foolishly, he doesn't.

This nearly-fruitless chase continues on for another three blocks and then the burly man ducks into an entrance of a building.

Peter curses under his breath and follows, mentally putting a _buy some Epsom salt _note up.

What he discovers, to his dismay, is that he and the jewelry thief have both stumbled into a _Star Wars _convention, chock full of Chewbacca look-alikes and Yoda impersonators.

"Just great," Peter mumbles and hastily thrusts some money at the ticket officials to get inside the place. He crosses the threshold and curses again. It will take an extreme amount of canvassing to find this man and by now he can be dressed as a storm trooper.

And then…out of the corner of his eye is something baffling. No, not baffling. Completely…astounding.

See, the thing is, Peter knows his partner. He's hauled him away in handcuffs, he's seen him at his most vulnerable, he's heard stories from the 'alleged' art thief himself. He could give you a map of Neal Caffrey, right down to the Devore suit.

However, Neal can also be a bit of an enigma and one example of this can be…what he's staring at right now.

He'll take Neal for, say, a fan of art, because, duh. He'll understand it if Neal might even like the Sopranos. But…_Star Wars_?

Neal is dueling with a man dressed as Darth Vader and he's dressed as Han Solo. Neal, yes, Neal Caffrey, is not impeccably dressed to the nines, in complete _Star Wars _regalia, his hair _un _-gelled, a look of determination on his face as he impressively whirls around a plastic, glowing light saber and Peter watches the display with the familiar feeling of being both in awe and irritation.

"Neal?" Peter shouts, waving his arms at the younger man to get his attention.

Neal stops, looking around the convention for whoever just said his name. "Peter?" he seems to whisper. He jumps off the platform and runs over to him while spectators boo at the loss of a show.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asks, not able to stop the disdain from being laced in his words.

Neal smiles, shrugs. "What can I say? I love a good versus evil story."

"Oh yeah, and you're on the good side?" Peter questions.

Neal just keeps smiling so Peter sighs, runs a hand through his thinning hair, and says, "I'm chasing this guy…armed jewelry thief."

"Here?" Neal's eyes widen and he spins around, trying to search out anyone suspicious.

"Yeah." Peter shakes his head. "I think I lost him."

"Description?" Neal asks hurriedly.

"Uh, probably five-eight, he's got muscular arms, I didn't really get a good look at his face.  
>he confides.<p>

Neal nods and then turns to a small circle behind him, relaying the information.

Peter blinks in surprise as this circle reveals a Princess Leia, a Luke Skywalker, and a somewhat-convincing C-3PO.

"Alright guys, let's split up." Neal orders. He sprints off and Peter follows while the other three run off to their sanctioned sections.

"So, what's up with the, uh…" Peter fumbles to ask.

"Star Wars team?" Neal grins as he jogs, searching.

"Yeah."

"I met them when I first came to New York. I was at this club and…"

"You go to clubs?"

Neal ignores him. "I ran into this group of people who were enthusiastically talking about a movie I love so we've been good friends ever since."

Peter just shakes his head in disbelief.

Suddenly, Neal points. "Is that him?" the jewel thief was slipping on a Yoda mask by a booth.

"Aw, hell," Peter says, "now we'll never catch-!" no sooner does he say this that the man in Neal's group dressed as Luke Skywalker seemingly appears out of nowhere and tackles the man to the floor.

Leia runs after him and grabs the backpack and Neal joins the group, snatching the gun that fell out of the man's jacket and tosses it to Peter with the information he already knows: "I hate guns."

C-P3O saunters up to the hero triumvirate with a scowl. "I always miss the cool stuff." He pouts. "How about _you _slap the cuffs on him…robot man?" Peter says awkwardly and unlatches the cuffs from his belt loop.

"Robot man?" Neal teases as he and Peter watch his friend attempt an arrest.

"Shut up, Han Solo."

_THE END_


End file.
